The Schwarzman Scholars program was founded by Stephen A. Schwarzman, the chair and CEO of the Blackstone Group, a global private-equity firm. The program was first announced in 2013 with the aim of providing a program comparable to the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship on the campus of Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. The Schwarzman Scholars program offers the opportunity to build international relationships and global leadership skills through an immersive one-year master's degree at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China.
In the fall of 2024, the Schwarzman Scholars program will welcome 150 fully funded students to earn a master's degree in global affairs. For the first time, and after a competitive selection process, a Caltech student will be attending.
Joy Shi, a senior majoring in computer science, is joining a diverse class of scholars from 43 different countries around the world to learn about Chinese culture and China's role in the global economy. The Schwarzman Scholarship provides extensive opportunities for mentorship and networking, and helps its scholars move into roles as global leaders.
Shi first became aware of the Schwarzman Scholars program at a Tables for Techers Caltech alumni meetup in Shanghai in summer 2023, on the one day when she happened to be in that city. "I expressed interest in studying or working in Asia after I graduated from Caltech," Shi says, "and some of the Caltech alumni at the event told me about the Schwarzman Scholars program. It seemed like the perfect opportunity: doing a master's degree program and having a valuable internship." Shi found the Caltech alumni she met at that dinner intriguing because of how they combined science and business. "These were scientists," Shi says. "Many of them did PhDs or postdocs at Caltech. But then they ended up working in venture capital or management consulting in China, blending business and tech.
"I actually came into Caltech wanting to do applied math," Shi explains. "I was really interested in the problem-solving aspect, in seeing and applying results. But within my first year, I realized that computer science could be applied to almost everything! Even my hobbies, like triathlons, chess, movies, fashion—computer science gets its way into all of them." Shi's interest in entrepreneurship, however, appeared even earlier. In high school she founded a girls' math competition, Integirls. Her original intention was that the competition would be oriented toward the greater Washington, DC, community where she grew up. But when the COVID-19 pandemic shifted everything remote, Shi says, she "ended up meeting so many interesting people from such different backgrounds. It really furthered my interest in entrepreneurship, which is in its own way another kind of problem-solving."
Shi hopes to use her time in China to meet people from all over the world. "Caltech is already a very cosmopolitan place. There are people from all over, and it's wonderful," she says. "But the Schwarzman program is incredibly special in the way that it brings people from everywhere to learn and work together." Shi credits her successful application to the Schwarzman Scholars program in part to a fall 2023 class at Caltech called Understanding China Through Finance. "I felt prepared to tackle any questions that came up in my Schwarzman interview," she says. "And the class has really given me a perspective for thinking about the political and economic situation in China and how I can make the best use of this opportunity I've been given to study there."
